My confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish.
And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees.. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.
It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a crïeche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around , period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.
Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.
In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.
Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'
In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK. Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.
Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.' Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes ' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you laughing yet?
Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.
My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully,
-- Ben Stein
10 comments:
Be careful quoting Ben Stein. While I am a practicing Christian, I find that his quotes are only meant for one sector of our population and that is those who have conservative christian beliefs. Many times he preaches hate in subtle forms. America is in FACT based on the seperation between church and state. Our founding fathers were very clear about that. Prayer has no place in school, the bible has no place in the character education of students in public schools. Christianity in any form has no place in our government. (Although that is hard to do when christians are so prominent in our society) He implies that only christians have a conscience when in fact some of the most generous, loving, thoughtful, peacemaking people are in fact those that don't believe in God. So while I understand what the meaening behind this posting is, Ben is also likely to go out tomorrow to write a commentary about how gays don't have the right to be married and God has punished us because he have "lost our way" and I absolutely refuse to believe our God is like that. He is not.
and to that email!
i say MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!
:)
and if someone celebrates some other holiday then please feel free to tell me that! cuz i respect it!!
I agree. Prayer has NO place in our schools. Honestly, I find it annoying when people pretend that the answer to our problems would be to pray more. I mean, really? I doubt that God requires a specific number of prayer before he actually listens to you. Those who deem themselves true Christians can go to church if they want or follow whatever church/Bible rules they think are right, but the idea that the world is in trouble because we have forgotten God (and, WORSE, the idea that the solution to that is to put religion back in school) is plain wrong.
What I find annoying is when people don't USE A NAME!!!
I really don't want to get into this discussion because people here get way too touchy.
I will say this though, in addition to the no-name thing being royally annoying, is that we're ALL entitled to our own thoughts, own opinions, and our own religion.
I never posted this to push my faith or religion on anyone and so I don't want anyone doing that to me.
I RESPECT DIFFERENCE.
I just thought his words were interesting and were food for thought...
... thoughts MANY people so carelessly don't poses or ponder on.
WE get too touchy?! I'm pretty sure the comment above wasn't meant as an insult, but maybe I'm reading it wrong.
Um... Tracey? Ben Stein is JEWISH.
Whoa...
so God's not a "God" but some kind of pissy critter who drowns a city when the people he created/controls piss him off?
That's like the Ajumma in my building, who floods the floors of classrooms of teachers they don't like.
God... the Ajumma...
weird...
You got duped. Might want to check if things are hoaxes before passing them off as truth.
THIS is what Ben Stein wrote:
http://www.benstein.com/121805xmas.html
That's it. All of the crap about prayer in school was added by someone else.
The "Katrina" bit wasn't even about Katrina. It was said about 9/11.
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/b/ben-stein-christmas.htm
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_ben_stein_christmas.htm
Hi Anonymous,
Actually, I wasn't getting touchy. I just was clearly pointing out that difference needs to be respected.
Just because people believe in something doesn't make it right and so we're all allowed to choose what we want to put our faith in.
I've got way too many friends from way too many walks of faith, cultures and religions to pin-point something as being right or wrong. It's all a matter of perspective and personal opinion.
Like my high school English teacher said, you can never be wrong on a personal opinion question because it's personal opinion.
I'm cool with whomever saying whatever, to each their own.
I think another problem here is things being taken out of context. My words here have no tone, they're just writings on my homepage and so I totally can see where people might misunderstand me and take my words wrong.
I wasn't upset, just stating my personal opinion.
Cool?!.. I hope so.
Hey Rwellor,
Hehehe... I think you missed the WHOLE point actually but I like your joke about the ajumma. Dang ajumma on a power trip... hehehe.
Hello "Knows to Check Sources Before Posting Internet Junk Mail"... I doubt that's your name, but ok... hehehe,
Duped?! No, I don't agree. Actually, I could careless about whether or not it was really he who said it or not. Truthfully, I don't even know who the man is for goodness sakes but I liked the writing... his writing or someone else's. I liked it for the simple fact that it got me thinking and I thought it was interesting. The minuet details regarding was it about 9/11 or Katrina is irrelevant to me. I just liked the food for thought it posed.
I could careless, honestly, whether it were his words or the drunk dude down the street, fact is that it was interesting and it stirred something in me.
But, thanks for the links and for your posting. I agree with you and yes, I hate junkmail, but I thought it was interesting. Fact or fiction, it was interesting.
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